The Case of Hana and Alice / Hana to Alice Satsujin Jiken
I quite enjoyed the film, it's something odd and a bit different and that probably works in it's favour. I'd say it's kind of a slice of life film, there is a main storyline that reaches a resolution by the end but much of the film is spent on insights into the lives of a variety of characters. The main story, about two girls who get to know each other while trying to uncover the truth behind some past events (that have been spun into a legend of sorts), doesn't really get fully started until a good way into the film and feels like it is used more to tie the series of events together rather than as the primary purpose of the film. Even so, people who prefer a more straightforward and focussed storyline may be able to enjoy the film because it does handle the flow of events fairly well and generally feels like it's moving towards a resolution (if, perhaps, a little slowly at the beginning).
The main strength of the film for me was the characters. The main characters, Hana and Alice, aren't necessarily "normal" but they feel like believable and realistic people. We mostly follow Alice through the film and what we see feels like a natural effect of the personality that Alice has rather than feeling like we're just following a story that the characters exist to tell. Some of the characters are particularly odd but even the strangest tend to justify their personality and still feel believable (possibly depending on your own experiences with people). The little glimpses into the lives of the characters that we get help to make them feel more like real people and also makes for some interesting viewing.
The animation uses rotoscoping, I think it generally works fine for the film and it has it's own good and bad points. There may be a few moments where things look a little strange and not quite right but there are probably about as many where it captures something that might not have worked as well in a different form. Personally, I don't think I'd want to see rotoscoped animation too often because I don't think it works so well for me but I suppose it's really just a different way of doing things. There's plenty to enjoy in the film anyway, even if the animation doesn't necessarily work for you (and more so if it does, I suppose).
Overall, I did enjoy the film quite a bit. I'm not sure it'd quite make personal favourite but I'd still rate it somewhat highly and I'll almost certainly watch it again (probably from time to time). I'd certainly recommend it to fans of character focussed stories, especially slice of life fans, and it's probably worth a try in general.
Not part of the film (although it is part of the release), but I did think some of the comments by the director on animation were interesting. I might have misinterpreted, but it feels like the director underestimates what animation can do. They seemed to be trying to replicate reality, with rotoscoping aimed to bring out more realistic movements. I think one of the strengths of animation is that it doesn't have to be limited by reality and that it can show meaning in a wide variety of ways. The director seemed to think that most animation doesn't really have the capacity to capture more subtle details and movements that can indicate the feelings of the characters. While it's probably true that many anime don't make that a focus, I wonder if the director has seen shows like Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinju and others that put a lot of work into their more subtle details. I did think it was odd that the director seemed somewhat negative about animation, although they apparently haven't worked with animation much before and it's not like it's entirely unusual for animation directors to be negative about animation.
